Courts would offer payment plans for fines and costs

Courts would have to notify defendants about payment options and offer deferred or installment plans. This would cover people ordered to pay fines and costs, including restitution unless the court sets a separate restitution schedule. Available plans would include delayed payment, delayed payment with best-efforts payments, and periodic installments. Community-service credits would be included in the notice if a community-service program exists. Courts could not deny an opportunity solely because of the offense category, total amount owed, an earlier default, collection referral, or no payment history. The notice and offer would apply when a court orders a defendant to pay fines and costs.

Courts would set payment amounts and deadlines using the defendant's financial resources and obligations. The rules would cover payment agreements for fines and costs owed in one court, including amounts from multiple cases when allowed. Monthly payments could be $25 or more based on ability to pay, or less than $25 for a person found indigent. Courts could not require a down payment for an initial agreement, although a defendant could choose to pay one. Payments made within 10 days after the due date would count as timely, and a court could modify an agreement after a written good-faith request. These rules would apply while a payment agreement is being made and when the court sets or changes its terms.

A person who defaults could ask the court for another payment agreement, and the court could require a capped down payment. This would cover defendants who previously failed to follow a payment agreement and later seek another one. The court would consider changes in the person's circumstances. For a later agreement, the down payment could not exceed 10 percent when the debt is $500 or less, or the greater of 5 percent or $50 when the debt is more than $500. The court could not require a payment history on the later agreement before restoring the person's driver's license. The rules would apply when a defendant seeks a later agreement after defaulting and before driver's-license restoration.

Courts would delay or bar collection from protected benefits and would defer certain prison-related fines and costs until after release. The benefit protection would cover defendants whose only financial resource is Social Security or Supplemental Security Income; the prison rule would cover people sentenced to active incarceration for the related charges. A person relying only on Social Security or SSI would not have to pay until another resource exists, and those benefits could not be treated as available income or referred to collections. For covered incarcerated people, the payment due date would be at least 180 days after the scheduled release date. Benefit protections would last at least until the person has another financial resource; the prison payment period would begin on the stated post-release due date.